He made a Broadway adaptation of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest in 1963, which he also starred in before passing on the film rights to son Michael, and directed two Westerns – 1975’s Posse, in which he starred with Bruce Dern, and the 1973 film Scalawag, where he also took a lead role.

Despite suffering a severe stroke in 1996 which affected his speech, Douglas went through years of voice therapy to get back into acting and starred in Diamonds in 1999 alongside Lauren Bacall, playing an old fighter recovering from a stroke.